Chapter 40 Second Phase

With Watt’s preparations, it was fairly easy not to miss the arrival of the examiners. Watt had brought a lot of useful equipment for the trip, unlike Josiah who had nothing but his equipment, and even on that he was missing, since he lost the dagger after throwing it at the talpig earlier.

Watt had brought something whose function reminded Josiah of the ‘binoculars’ he had in his own world, but they were a fairly small apparatus, more like just a small lens on a cylinder.

They waited, observing from the distance until they spot the men arriving and followed right after. They were the fifth and sixth people to arrive at the destination.

“I thought for sure we were gonna be the first ones…” Josiah said.

“I told you everybody would have the same idea.”

They waited a bit longer, close to an hour, and more participants arrived at the spot during the period. But no close to thirty. After this period of waiting the examiner finally pronounced himself:

“That’s it. These are the people who’re going to be able to make it here. I declare this phase terminated and declare you sixteen as the ones who’re going to take part in the next one.”

“What!? Sixteen? What about the other fourteen?” Josiah asked surprised.

“Reaching the mountain is harder than you’d think, kid.” The instructor replied to him. “Enter the truck. We are leaving on this one. The surviving ones are going to be rescued and brought on the next truck.”

The sixteen victorious participants did as he said.

They were once again instructed to stay on the back of the truck, in the dark, during the whole trip.

In the midway, Josiah reflected about those instructor’s words.

‘The surviving ones are going to be rescued…’

“Watt… Do you think… People died in this exam…?”

“… I don’t know…”



It was a silent, tiresome trip back to the reserve building conglomerate. Counting the time they passed there, plus the hours to go and to get back, they’ve wasted three entire days in the first phase. Fortunately, the second one wouldn’t start until the first of the next week.

Since they were the victorious ones they deserved half a day of break before they resumed the activities at the camp.

The activities went by unchanging and soon it was time for the second phase.

In the next week, the sixteen members were lined up on the outside of 288, standing at attention while Sargeant Koda was giving the briefing:

“The second phase is going to be held here at the camp. More precisely inside the Operations Simulation Building, the 42.”

One of the soldiers, who was next to Josiah, left out a small whistling sound.

“We are going to start marching there now! Start!”

The group began following the Sargeant around in a straight line.

“What’s up?” Josiah whispered to the man who did the whistling sound. A somewhat fat, round soldier on his mid-twenties named Greg.

“The OSB building. It’s designed for high-level operations simulation. Only for the pros. They never let the newbies inside there.”

“Humm…”

In fact, most of the buildings on the eastern side, from 1 to almost 100, were destined to the veterans. Josiah and the emerging talents never went there during the whole eight months he was inside.

“Listen,” Sargeant Koda said in loud words along the way. “This is a rescuing-themed challenge. There are sixteen hostages to be rescued in a dangerous environment. You need to make sure they leave the place ok. Each of you is going to receive a number of the hostage you need to rescue. You are going to search for the person to save among the ones inside the room. We are going to measure your performance based on how you accomplish it.”

“Oh, so this is just a simulation after all,” Greg commented.



The OSB building was a large rectangular place, with several doors on all of its four sides. The exterior was all covered in that pinkish glass Josiah never understood. They could not see inside.

The instructions were clear enough. Enter. Save your hostage. Leave. All the participants would enter the building at the same time. This time they could not interfere with the actions of each other. Each participant was being evaluated about their own job.

All the sixteen victorious people in the first phase each went to their assigned door and waited. When the order was given, they’d begin their attempt at rescuing the hostage.

“Therefore. I declare the second phase started! Go!” Koda shouted.



Josiah came in expecting some sort of very quick danger simulation with a doll for a hostage or something. But as soon as he stepped in… He could hear the roars of wandering beasts.

‘You kidding me? They brought creatures inside here?’

The inside of the building was a maze of huge concrete blocks, almost all of them too tall for an inexperienced person to climb on. With a first sighting, Josiah quickly understood that the hostages were placed above the blocks. He saw one in front of him. It was the blonde girl of the previous newbie group that joined the army eight months ago. The girl was tied up had her mouth covered.

‘They’re not kidding around…’ Josiah thought.

‘Let me see. The instruction is to find hostage #5 and leave here with him as soon as possible. I could try and kill the beasts on the floor before searching above the blocks, but that’d take way too long. The best option is to go climb a block with a hostage, check his number, and if it’s not mine, descend. I shouldn’t save the ones who’re not mine. The problem is that just climbing up and down out of these huge things should take some time…’ Josiah contemplated the height of the square where the girl was tied up in front of him. It was almost four times his size and its walls were completely smooth.

A creature quickly approached Josiah. Its body resembled a large rooster, and similarly, it had wings but didn’t use them to fly. It had two heads; one with a beak and the other one without. The one with the beak seemed to be functional and the other head just waved around as the thing approached quickly Josiah, screeching in a very high-pitched note.

‘They’re here, already!’

Josiah drew his sword out. As soon as the thing came close enough, with a single swing he cut the things’ neck, ripping a large cut, partially hitting the dysfunctional head.

The animal stirred its body in pain, echoing the place with an even more shrill noise.

With the sound, more of those creatures appeared from the corners of the blocks ahead, guided by its relative’s screams.

‘I better get out of here!’ Josiah placed the sword back and started running away from the group of things, toward the center of the room. He was almost in the middle when he managed to fool them all with his choice of paths.

‘Now… Since I’m in the middle there should be more hostages around.’

Josiah heard a deep, thunderous roar.

‘Uh oh… I recognize this one.’

It was coming from Josiah’s left. The horrid deep and characteristic scream of a thing he fought last week and had to run for it.

Josiah’s first reaction was to escape to the other side, but he heard some screaming coming from above:

“Heeeelp!”

When Josiah looked up he saw that the Talpig was almost climbing on the block, above which was one of the hostages, now without the rag covering his mouth.

It was Albo.

“Heelp!”

“Albo!” Josiah screamed.

Originally the animals were meant to stay on the floor, but that talpig had drilled the block with its horns, making a path for its massive body to climb up. It has climbed up almost the entire block and was almost making it to the top. Everything Albo could do was to try and slow it down with his feet. Josiah saw he continuously kicking the things’ forehead with his feet to try and make it fall down, but he was losing.

‘Tch! What do I do now?’